BraveHeart
by Wolfloner2004
Summary: An original story about Five children and their digimon. I'm no good at summaries. Please readReview. any questions ect can be directed to me at , or asked in the comments. Thank you. ::bows:: We're getting close to the end. Yay!
1. Chapter Zero

Ivi was seven years old when she first stumbled upon 'Blitzkriegs' Digimon Vault'. Young and carefree, she posted on the forum under the alias 'Aruramon'. She grew to know Blitz, and some of the others that frequented the boards.

Of course, as stories often begin, she had no idea of the truth behind the site.

A year later she still visited the site often. She had made several friends and fleshed out who Aruramon was. The fictional digimon had her own forms and personality, as all of the fictional digimon do.

Enough backstory. This tale begins one night, Ivi was laying on her bed, attempting to get some sleep, though the electronics in her house kept doing odd things. The tv turning on and off, the computer flickering, the radio's volume changing itself, all of this was doing a good job of keeping the young girl from her sleep.

She looked up at the ceiling, admiring the glow in the dark stars her parents had placed there years before, when a small bubble passed through her vision.

Confused, she sat up and looked around. There was nothing that could emit bubbles in her room.

Another bubble. And another. She got out of bed and searched for the source. She saw her comuter monitor glowing and small bubbles comeing forth from it.

"What...?" she breathed the question and moved foreward to touch the screen. As her fingers made contact everything went white.

A sharp pain coursed through her body, and imense heat seemed to be beating down on her. She fell to her knees only to feel grass below her.

As suddenly as everything had begun it was gone. The heat, the pain, the light, all remnants of it were only a memory.

She opened her eyes to see where she was. Large glowing trees partially blocked her view of the vibrant pink sky, and light green clouds.

Although the view was beautiful, she felt herself stunned for another reason. Only about twelve feet away stood a Kuwagamon, its face fixed on Ivi.

She screamed, and quickly turned and ran. The giant beetle-digimon took to the air and foolowed easily.

The ground was uneven, and Ivi's legs were to short to aid her in keeping balance. Sharp pebbles adorned the ground and further hindered the barefoot child.

Finally losing her footing she tripped and fell facefirst into a tree. Only to find that she fell, litterally, into the tree. The inner walls were covered with binary coding. This convinced her of what she was afraid of: she was actually in the digital world.

With no shoes, no digivice, no digimon partner, not even warm clothing, she was stranded in another world with a hungry digimon looking for her.

She sank to the ground and made herself into a small ball. There she cried, not knowing what else she could do. Her tears littered the bottom of the tree, and she was sure that Kuwagamon could hear her, but she didn't care any longer.

She was going to die and there was nothing she could do about it.

Suddenly, there was a loud screeching sound and the top of the tree was torn off.

She screamed again, but when no other sounds followed she looked up. A demidevimon stared down at her with a grin on his face.

He fluttered down and sat in front of her. "You alright, kid?"

Ivi nodded. "Did you save me?"

The digimon laughed. "Sort of." He looked her up and down. "Don't you have a partner? Last kids I saw here had digimon of their own..."

Ivi looked at the ground. "I don't think so... listen, Mr. Demidevimon, i just wanna go home. Can you help me?"

Although Ivi had often dreamed of visiting the digital world, she was quickly realising it wasn't all that great. She wanted to return home, an pretend this had never happened.

"i know a guy that might be able to help you. Follow me." Demidevimon glided through the tree, with Ivi close behind him. She followed him what seemed to be miles, slowly realising that her body wasn't growing tired. Although her muscles hurt, as did her feet, she felt she could keep going forever.

Eventually the two came to a large black castle. Ghost-type digimon, Bakemon floated around, gaurding the area.

Demidevimon flew in without disturbance, and Ivi quickly followed. The Bakemon gave her knowing smirks.

She was still alone in this world. A computer glitch that was to be disposed of.

The two walked deeper into the castle, passing cages that housed digimon of all shapes and sizes, many were wounded but others seemed to be there willingly.

Sconces lit the hallways as the moved deeper underground.

They finally came to a large stone door with a strage engraving on it.

Pushing the door open Ivi quietly entered the room, her escort following now.

He flew foreward towards a vampire-like digimon, Vamdemon.

His dark red eyes were on a white and red humpled pile of fur in front of him.

"I'm sorry My Lord! I did not intend to let him go!" the humpled pile cried.

The voice rang familiar with Ivi, She quickly realised why as the digimon stood up. She had soft-looking white fur that took on an orange shade from the flames around the room. Large eagle-like wings folded over her wolven body. Ivi could see the calm green eyes from her position at the door.

Aruramon.

Without a second thought she raced foreward, stopping when Vamdemon raised his red whip and brought it down on Aruramon again. "You pitiful excuse for a servent!" He rose the whip again.

"No!" Ivi ran foreward and stood infront of Aruramon, facing her. The vibrant whip landed across her back and she fell to her knees.

"Move, you insulent child!" Vamdemon, though suprised by the interuption didn't change the hatsh look on his face. He brought the whip down again and again drawing blood from the young girl.

"N-n-no... I won't let you hurt my partner..." Tears of pain fell to the floor and the strage engraving on the door glowed. a purple light shot from the image and landed in Ivi's hand. She gripped the cold digivice, and it began to glow.

With an energy she didn't kow she possessed she stood and turned, facing Vamdemon. "I won't let you hurt Aruramon!" The digimon behind her glowed purple and the door glowed before shrinking and becomeing part of her digivice.

Aruramon grew in size, and red bands wrapped around her legs, her fur became thicker and a brighter white. Two ribbons fell over her back, between large draconic wings. A purple collar with a small bell hung around her neck, and small horns proturded from the top of her skull.

AngelWolfmon growled deeply and lunged over Ivi and tackled Vamdemon, temporarily knocking him out. She growled at Demidevimon who fell to the ground dumbfounded. She turned and bowed to Ivi.

"Thank you for helping me, Aibou. Please, allow me to serve you." Ivi grinned and ran foreward giving her digimon a big hug.

"Can we go home together, Aruramon?" The digimon smiled and lifted her carefully to her back. She turned to Vamdemon's gate to the human world and ran through it.

Ivimon awoke on her bed, and looked around. Was it all a dream? Her eyes fell upon a small brown wolf-pup with wings. Small amber eyes were closed. Arumon was home with her.

Ivi was a chosen child with a playful digimon with a darker past.

The Chosen Child of Determination.

Visit  for more information.


	2. A Suddening Beginning

BRAVE HEART

EPISODE ONE: A SUDDEN BEGINING.

Six years had passed since Ivi had met Arumon.

During the six years the two had bonded greatly; Ivi was now practicing Bojutsu, a style of stick-fighting so that Arumon wouldn't have to fight alone.

Ivi's encounter with Vamdemon left deep scars on her back, which proved most difficult to explain away.

Ashteroth and Max, Ivi's young brothers, constantly followed Arumon around. Young children, and those that believed in digimon could see them for what they were. Others saw them only as animals.

The two boys were soon to have digimon partners as well, but I'm getting far ahead of myself.

This time our story begins with Ivi, Arumon, Max, and Ash sitting in the park; or at least Ivi was sitting. Her partner, and younger brothers were running through the park, never seeming to tire. She had dropped from the game of tag fourteen minutes ago, and was only now feeling up to joining in again.

She moved from the bench and ran towards the others, only to be met by a blast of black light, which knocked her to the ground, winded.

"Master!" Arumon ran to the chosen child's side in time to see a Pagumon resting on Ivi's chest.

The girl coughed and stared at the small grey ball, which looked momentarily like a rat before taking on its true form. There was something strangly familiar about the digimon stareing back at her.

"Konnichi'wa!" The Pagumon gave her a hug with his ears. "Thank you for catching my fall, chosen child! You must be the one I'm here to protect." The baby digimon jumped to the ground, and gave a small bow.

Arumon growled feircly at him. "I don't know who you are, but I am fully capable of protecting my master!" Her hackles raised she continued growling at him.

"Aru-nee-san! Aru-nee-san!" Max and Ash came running over, pulling the wolf-like digimon away from the Pagumon.

"There's no need to be angry, Aru-nee-san." Ash smiled and walked over to Pagumon. "Digi-chan, I think you're wrong. Aru-nee-san is Ivi-nee-san's partner. I'm sure you have a human too, but it isn't Ivi-nee-san."

The pagumon stared at him. "I'm sorry, but you must be mistaken, kid. This... Ivi, she was the first human I met, therefore she must be my partner!"

Ash took a step back, taken aback by the small digimon's harsh tone. "S-sorry..."

Ivi sat up. "Pagu-san, Ash has a point. I already have a digimon, why would I need two?"

Max walked over to the Pagumon now. "Pagu-pagu! How cute! I'll be your human!" the four-year-old hugged the grey digimon.

"Bubble Shoot!" The small blue bubble knocked Max back. The small boy looked back at the digimon with tears in his eyes.

"Pagu-pagu..."

"Ivi-chan is my partner, and I won't accept anyone else!" The digimon snapped.

Ivi stood quickly and kicked the Pagumon. "I won't have any digimon who would hurt a child!"

Arumon growled, and yellow energy gathered in her mouth untill she unleashed it at the baby digimon. "Arura Light!"

Pagumon opened his eyes in time to see the attack. A vast heat swept over his body, which lasted even after the attack had subsided.

He yelled in pain as he felt his ears split, the larger portion forming wings, while the smaller formed ribbon-esque antenai. Tallon-like feet grew from the bottom of his body, and his fur turned to feathers.

A pained expression on his voice, Demidevimon looked up at the humans and Arumon.

Ivi looked taken aback. "Demi...devimon... are you the one who..." she was at a loss for words.

Arumon growled with a renewed hatred. "You tried to kill Master!" She ran at the bat-like digimon.

His breath caught, Demidevimon fluttered above Arumon, barely dodging her attack.

He landed before Ivi. "Please, hear me out! I'm a changed digimon! I regret leading you to Vamdemon... please forgive me."

The fourteen-year-old eyed the bat digimon cooly. "Why should I trust you? You just attacked my little brother."

"It was a reflex. As a baby digimon, sudden movements like that make me attack..."

"You are so full of shit!" Arumon barked. Ivi's face snapped up, glareing at her digimon. "Ah, my apoligies Max and Ash. Don't listen to Aru-nee-san's bad mouth." She have a kind look to the two frightened children.

The two nodded, Ash, the older by two years, knelt in front of Max, keeping his eyes on the Demidevimon, refusing to let him out of his sight.

Ivi returned her look to Demidevimon, "You wish for me to be your partner, however I already have one. I have a digivice, and I'm pretty certain there's no space in its data for you." She walked over, picking up Max, (Arumon let Ash ride on her back), and the group left the digimon in the park.

Nearly two weeks had passed without incident. Arumon had been on edge, and constantly watchful past the first week, but had finally calmed down, and allowed herself to enjoy her time with the Hartley family.

She and Ivi had reastablished connections with Simon, or Blitz as he called himself, and Agnemon. Arumon was curled up on Ivi's bed while her master typed away, in her corrispondance with their old friend.

After a few minutes of this, she grew bored and jumped lightly from the bed, quietly traveling through the house in search for Max and Ash. The two were constantly hyper, and always happy to play with her.

She passed by Ivi's parents in the kitchen, both eyed her with a look of contempt. They were convinced she was the cause of the scars on her partner's back, which was true, she supposed.

She wagged her tail, and panted lightly, putting on the dog show and pushing back her annoyance with the humans.

Trotting away from them after a moment, she padded up the stairs and nosed her way into the younger boy's room. "Hello, Max-chan." She said quietly.

The young boy smiled at her. He was holding a large fluffy ball that just barely fit into his arms. "Lookie, Aru-nee-san!"

The wolf-digimon's stomach dropped. Demidevimon turned and gave her a sickeningly sweet grin. "I've decided to take Max up on his offer. See, he even has a digivice. Just for me."

Max held up the small silver device, even from there Arumon could see the small green insignia on the screen.

"Aru-nee-san! Ivi-nee-san!" She could hear Ash pounding down the stairs, towards Ivi's room.

"I'll deal with you later." She promised Demidevimon and turned quickly to return to her master's room.

Ivi was knealing before Ash, looking at his digivice. His digivice had a similar, red insignia.

"This means I have a digimon too, right?" Master and partner met eyes then looked back at the digivice.

"Max has one as well... his partner is Demidevimon..." Arumon shuddered visiably, and Ivi sighed.

"Well. I'm glad the two of you have partners! Ash-chan, where is your digimon?" Ivi stood up, and grinned down at her younger brother.

The raven-haired boy pondered for a moment, staring intently at his digivice, as though expecting it to tell him. He was rewarded momentarily with a soft beeping noise, and a small red dot appeared on the screen. "There he is!" He ran from the room, takeing the stares two and three at a time, rushing out the door.

Ivi and Arumon were quick on his heels. Max, having heard the commotion, had left Demidevimon and ran out the door after his siblings.

Angry calls from their parents at their backs the siblings moved as quickly as they could, following the beeping from Ash's digivice.

As they neared the sight, Max's digivice began to beep as well. Thinking both digivices were reacting to the same digimon, Ivi reached for her digivice as well, only to find it wasn't there. She clenched her eyes shut for a moment, realising her digivice was sitting next to her keyboard.

The four were nearing a wooded area, they could see fog comeing from the pathways and trees.

Gulping Max and Ash led the way. Ivi broke a sturdy looking branch from a tree, and Arumon's fur stood on her back. They readied themselves incase anything should happen to the young children.

Coming to the source of the fog, two figures could be seen. Appearently hearing the beeping from the digivices, the two came from the fog.

The Jeanie-looking digimon moved foreword first, eyeing the two boys carefully. "I am Tapirmon." He said, as though this explained everything.

Ash walked foreword, knowing he was being judged by the child digimon. "I am Hartley, Ashteroth." He announced as he had seen his father do several times. "I would be most happy if you would be my partner." He struggled for the correct words, wanting to impress who he hoped to be his partner.

The Tapirmon smiled. "Alright. I would enjoy serving under you, Ashteroth."

The boy smiled and hugged Tapirmon. "You can call me Ash-chan!"

Tapirmon looked like he wasn't sure what to do. He froze. "Ash-sama, what does his gesture mean?" He asked uncertainly.

"It's a hug silly!" Ash grinned at his partner.

Ivi gave a small sigh of relief as the tapir-digimon returned the hug, although he still seemed awkward doing it.

Max's eyes had stayed on the other figure. "Who are you? I have a digimon. You shouldn't be here. We don't want you!" Max picked up a small rock and threw it at the V-mon.

The V-mon yelped and ducked. He laughed quietly then ran up and hugged Max. "I dunno what you mean, Max-chan! I've had your voice and face in my mind since I hatched." The blue lizard-like digimon danced around the boy.

Max gave him a disbelieving look. "Uh-uh! Pagu-Pagu is my partner! He showed me! He was right by me when I got my digivice!"

V-mon stopped dancing, his ears fell. "But..."

Ivi looked at the V-mon, and then glanced down at Arumon. "What do you think?"

Arumon shrugged. "I remember having your face in my mind when I was very young too. I think he's telling the truth..."

Ivi walked past her blonde-haired brother and knelt down in front of V-mon. "V-mon-san, would you like to come home with us?"

"No! He's not my partner! Digi-chan is! Digi-chan is!" Max threw another rock at V-mon, and turned and ran from the woods, back home.

"Max!" Ash ran after him, Tapirmon following behind him.

V-mon had a hurt look on his face. "I'm sorry to bother you. I'll go back home..."

"That's ok." Ivi took his claw. "We think you were right, V-mon. Come home with us."

The small group hurried back home. From time to time Ivi thought she caught a glimpse of something green reflecting, but she ignored it and ran home as quickly as she could, wanting to keep up with Arumon.

Upon entering the house Ivi made for the stairs, only to be stopped by a scream from her room. She and Arumon exchanged glances before detouring into her room.

Her mom stood infront of her desk, staring in shock at a large bat. It took only a moment for Ivi to break past the digimon's disguise and saw Demidevimon standing there, holding her digivice in his claw.

"Mom!" Ivi ran foreword getting between her mother and the digimon. "Are you alright?"

"That… that… THAT THING!" She pointed past Demidevimon. Confused Ivi looked through the window, and into her backyard. Ash and Tapirmon sat outside. Ash seemed to be talking animatedly, while Tapirmon merely sat and listened to his partner.

She could only imagine what her mother must be seeing. Arumon walked over and put her front paws up on the desk so that she could keep a close eye on Demidevimon.

"It's alright Mom, I'll go find out what's going-" although she had managed to turn her mother away from the digimon in front of her, she had forgotten about V-mon.

"GET THESE THINGS AWAY FROM OUR HOUSE!" She snatched her hand away from Ivi and ran out of the room, shoving past V-mon.

All was quiet for a few moments before Demidevimon's laughter broke out. All three sets of eyes landed on him. "V-mon, that was a terriable disguise!" He fluttered over to the lizard digimon. He landed on V-mon's head. "He disguised himself as a blue charmander."

Ivi gave him a blank look for a moment before she realized what he was saying. "Like… the pokemon?"

"Yes!" How Demidevimon knew about pokemon Ivi didn't know, and was too annoyed to find out.

"Demi, give me back my digivice." She held her hand out.

The bat grinned and tossed her the device. She yelped feeling the new energy go through her body after contact with the digivice. "There. Now you're my partner, and you can't do anything about it." Ivi stared at him in shock, and then looked down at the item in her hand.

Arumon growled deeply and ran at the bat. Demidevimon fluttered above her head. "Relax, Aru-chan. You can still evolve with Ivi's help."

"Don't call me 'Aru-chan' as if we're friends!" She roared.

"Shut up." Ivi snapped at both of them, attaching the device to her belt. "V-mon, go to Max. I'm sure he'll be friendlier now."

V-mon gave a weary look down the hall. "He's upstairs." He nodded at Ivi's advice and walked quietly down the hall, hopeing to not have to encounter Ivi's mother again.

Making it up the stairs without incident, he looked in each room. Bathroom. Study. Room with lots of books. Room with several computers. Bedroom. He smiled and opened the door a bit farther. Images of dragons covered the walls. Dragon figurines where everywhere. Even the bedding had dragons on it. He looked down at his own body. While it was dragon-esque he saw why Max had turned him down. He didn't look fierce or powerful like the dragons in mythology. He couldn't breathe fire, or spit ice. The best he could do was punch something.

On the bed Max was curled up, his back to the doorway. "Max-sama…" the blue digimon quietly entered the room, taking a deep breath before climbing onto the bed.

"Sorry, Digi-chan." Was the only response he got.

"Max-sama… I'd still like to be your partner. I know I'm small, and not even that strong… But I can get stronger! And I'll fight for you. I'll protect you. Please…"

Max turned over and looked at V-mon. "After I threw a rock at you, you're sorry too?"

V-mon nodded. He yelped as he fell from the bed, the small boy on top of him. The two hit the ground with a thud.

"Digi-chan will by my partner!" Max pulled his digivice from his pocket and it glowed faintly, as though expressing its annoyance that it had taken him so long to understand.

"You can call me V-mon."

"V-chan!" The two grinned hugged tightly.


	3. Caramon and the Mysterious Evolution

AN: I keep forgetting disclaimers. . ; I don't own digimon, or the majority of the characters here. I DO however own Arumon and her forms, as well as Ivi, Max, Ashteroth, Airis, and William. All personalities and concepts belong to me unless you've seen it on the show. Also: 'Chosen Child'Digidestined and 'Insignia'Crest.

O, also, I misnamed 'Bakumon' as and 'Tapirmon'. From now on he'll be called Bakumon. Sorry for the inconvinince.

EPISODE TWO:

CARAMON AND THE MYSTERIOUS EVOLUTION

Ivi slipped into the warm water, grateful for the simple pleasure of a nice bath after the day she had had.

She sunk below the water, till her nose was barely beneath it. She blew small bubbles out through her mouth.

Having gotten her childish moment out she edged back, and leaned against the tub, letting her muscles relax from the day's beating. Her brothers had insisted she teach them some Bojutsu so that they could fight with Bakumon and V-mon. V-mon had wished to learn as well.

She pondered the day's events. Why had all three digimon reappeared at once? Why was Demidevimon so determined to have her as a partner?

Not many things had happened in the last six years. Two, maybe three digimon a year would break free from the digital world near her home. However all of them had found human partners quickly.

Only one instance had the digimon been vicious. It was only a Gizamon and Arumon hadn't even had to evolve to fight him. Once she had knocked him out, Ivi sent it back to the digital world with ease.

After a few more minutes of soaking in the warm water, she leaned foreword and grabbed a cup. Using it to pour water down her back she sighed at the sensation. There were areas in her back where she couldn't feel anything. Ivi was fairly certain the cause was the scars on her back.

Having washed she released the water into the sewers. After a moment she filled the tub up again, and slid into the warmth.

A small ticking sound caught her attention, as it was amplified by the water. She looked over at the window in time to see it being slid open. A small white creature crawled in through the crack.

"Get out! Get out! Get out!" she yelled, throwing nearby bottles at the digimon. A bar of soap hit him square on the forehead.

The digimon yelped, and the green gem on it's forehead glowed.

"Hopping KICK!" With a crash V-mon went through the door (opening it in the process) and looked between Ivi and the white digimon. Arumon followed, careful to step over the splinters.

"Get out, V-mon!" Ivi crouched in the tub, tossing a shampoo bottle at him.

"Ack. Sorry! Sorry!" The blue digimon turned.

"And take the white thing with you!"

A slightly confused V-mon, grabbed the white digimon, and ran from the room.

"He destroyed the door, didn't he?" Ivi asked Arumon. Her digimon shook her head while suppressing giggles. "Oh? And what's so funny?"

"I'm sorry, Ivi. But… that was just humorous." Her wolf-like digimon laughed quietly.

Ivi sighed and got out of the tub, quickly wrapping up in a towel. She reached back and unplugged the drain.

Elsewhere, V-mon was carrying the white digimon back into Max's room. "Look what I found!"

Max leaped from his bed. "It's so cute!" The white digimon smiled. "What's your name, Digi-chan?"

"Caramon is Caramon!" The digimon danced around. He grinned. "And Cricrimon is Cricrimon!"

"Cricrimon?" V-mon asked curiously.

Caramon smiled, and put her two small paws against the gem in her forehead. Closing her eyes in concentration she caused the stone to glow. Moments later an almost mirror image of her stood before them.

"Cri cri!" The digimon bowed low. He had a deep wise voice. "Cri cri cri cri!" he cried, lightly whapping Caramon.

"Sorry Master Cricrimon! I did the best I could!"

Ivi appeared at the doorway, now fully dressed. She stared at the two small white digimon. "Mom isn't going to like this." She closed her eyes, trying to imagine how to explain all of this to her mother.

"We should tell mommy about them, Ivi-nee-san! I wanna share V-chan with mommy and daddy!" Max grinned, and hugged his digimon.

"Yes… besides, there are so many digimon here now, it'll be very difficult to hide any longer…"

Ivi groaned, but saw the since in what they were saying. "Can we do it tomarrow?" She gave them pleading looks.

Caramon and Cricrimon looked up at her for a moment before running through the window. That is to say, they didn't break the glass, but literally passed through the window.

Ivi's eye twitched. "I'm going to bed." She and Arumon made it back down the stairs and into her room, where she securely locked the door.

Flopping onto the bed, she buried herself under the blankets. She saw a few strands on her brown hair fall infront of her eyes. Arumon jumped and landed lightly at the end of her bed.

"Aru-chan… what am I going to do?" She looked down at her digimon. "Why is all this happening? I don't want Max and Ash to have to fight… but they both seem so attached to their digimon already…"

"Ivi-sama. They've been around digimon their whole life. Why wouldn't they be thrilled to finally have digimon of their own? Besides, Tapirmon and V-mon, er, well, Tapirmon at least seems very responsible." Seeing the look on Ivi's face grow more worried she continued: "I'm sure V-mon will protect Max with his life."

To tired to say anything else, Ivi closed her eyes and fell into a fitful sleep.

_Ivi stood in a dark room. Red eyes suddenly flashed before her, and a burning sensation shot up her spine. For a few moments all she knew was pain. Looking down at herself, she saw not her own hands but someone else's. Scars that were not her own shined against the dim red light; silvery blonde hair fell into her vision. She looked up to see a pale white face, and those same red eyes staring back at her._

"_Bloody Whip!" Red filled her vision and the burning pain felt like her body was being torn to pieces._

"Stop It! Please, don't!" Ivi sat straight up, covered in a cold sweat. Her digimon gave her a concerned look.

"Ivi-sama?" Arumon nudged a glass of water towards her, which Ivi gratefully drank.

"Sorry… don't worry. It was just a bad dream." She gave her partner the best smile she could muster at the time. "Good night, Aru-chan." Though she laid back down, it would be several hours before sleep overtook her again that night.

The morning came to soon and Ivi was forced from her bed. She was grateful for summer vacation.

Before she had managed to wake up completely, the air was knocked out of her by the force of her two younger brothers and V-mon leaping on her. "Ivi-nee-chan!" They called, all excited about something.

Ivi looked over at the doorway and saw an ever solemn Bakumon watching the scene. Arumon stood beside him, her tail wagging fiercely.

"What is everyone so pleased about?"

"We told Mom and Dad!" Max bounced on the bed next to her.

"And they were so happy they cried!" Ash continued.

Ivi groaned, and struggled out of the bed, eager to explain things correctly to her parents. "And what about you?" Ivi glared at Arumon.

"They could see me for what I was. That fact… it makes me happy, Ivi-chan. That your parents at least believe you, even if they don't accept this fate."

Ivi gave her digimon an odd look before making her way to the living room. "Mommy… Daddy?" Her parents looked up at her with tear-stained faced.

"That's where you got your scars from, isn't it? From that… beast in there. 'Arumon' or whatever they called her."

"No. Another digimon gave me those scars." Ivi looked at the floor.

"Who did it to you? I'll kill him!" Her dad stood up, filled with rage.

"Dad… it's alright. He won't bother us again. He died a long time ago." Arumon padded into the room, sitting next to Ivi. She bowed her head towards her parents.

"With all due respect, Hartley-san, Hartley-san," she nodded her head to each of them in turn. "The last six years I've protected Ivi from everything I could. And I will continue to do so till the day she dies."

"But you're only a dog!"

"What do you mean till the day SHE dies!"

"Digimon live far longer than humans… we live forever, in fact. Barring us being attacked, that is…"

Ivi shifted as her parents paled.

Footsteps announced the arrival of her younger brothers and their digimon.

Demidevimon fluttered in as well, landing on Arumon's head.

"On the other hand… not ALL digimon are kind and protective," Arumon snapped at the digimon on her head, catching his talon in her mouth she threw him to the ground. "SOME would rather use humans for their own _benefits_!" She put her forepaws on the bat-digimon's wings, and help him there.

Their parents took a step back as V-mon and Bakumon moved to either side of Arumon. V-mon shook with anger at what Demidevimon had caused, while Bakumon stood silently, only his eyes betrayed his emotions.

"Hey, hey, hey, now! No need for violence. We have young innocent eyes in the room!"

"You are the one who lead Ivi to Vamdemon! You are the one who tricked Max! You… are just a lousy creature!" The three digimon growled deeply.

"Pico Dart!" A small dart formed in Demidevimon's talon and he forced it upwards into Arumon's chest. The wolf digimon swayed, giving him time to escape. Bakumon used 'Nightmare Syndrome' however V-mon had leaped to catch the bat, and so got in the way of Bakumon's attack. He fell to the ground, unconscious.

Demidevimon moved quickly breaking though a window to escape.

Ivi felt her digivice glow, and she clenched her jaw, as she felt some of her energy leave him. She knew Demidevimon was evolving so as to run away faster.

"And you expect us to allow our CHILDREN to run around with you monsters!" Their father screamed at the digimon.

"Sir, you do not understand the situation. Children are only paired with Digimon if there is something that is needed to be combated. If you do not allow your children to lend us their strength, then you are damning your world to destruction."

All eyes fell on Bakumon, as he delivered his short speech. His ever-calm voice held a bite to it.

"We'll protect Max-chan, Ash-san, and Ivi-san! Don't worry! We're strong and powerful and can fight anything!" V-mon clenched his right hand into a fist and punched his left claw with it.

"Besides," Arumon said flippantly, "if you don't allow them to fight by our side, we can always just take-" Ivi's foot landed on Arumon's tail, silencing whatever else the digimon had planned to say.

"Why do they have to be children?" Ivi's mother asked quietly, sinking back onto the couch. "Why can't adults fight with digimon? They can use weapons: guns, tanks!"

"Mom… weapons like that don't hurt digimon. Well… they hurt them, but it's not enough to kill them. Yeah, some digimon can use guns and the like… but those are special…"

"But why children!" she asked exasperatedly.

"Children have innate powers. In the long run, it is a rare child who can bond with a digimon. Adults rarely have that ability at all. Humans outgrow the magic and power they possess."

"You mean there are other children out there? Risking their lives because of you creatures?" Their Dad asked accusingly.

Ivi thought about it for a moment. How many other children were there?

_Blitz and Agnemon_

_Taichi and Agumon_

_Lexxy and Cunomon_

_Tania and Yazumon_

_Dea and Teddymon_

_Jennifer and Foximon_

_Ken and Wormmon_

_Dani and Pandamon_

_Lina and Diratimon_

_Erica and Cheekomon_

_Kouta and Dorumon_

Her thoughts filled with all the children. Different shapes, sizes, languages, backgrounds, abilities, diseases. Her head swam and she sank to the ground. "There are hundreds of us." She whispered.

"Then why do YOU have to fight?" she looked up at her parents pleading eyes. She understood how difficult this had to be for them. "Mom…"

"'Cause if they didn't need US, we wouldn't have digimon!" Ash stood straight and proud; a determined look on his face. "Our partners won't let anything bad happen to us. But we have to help them." With that he turned and ran up the stairs.

Max wavered for a moment, seeming to know where this was leading. He turned and ran up the stairs as well.

"Mom…Dad… they need us right now. There's a girl somewhere… I'm not sure where… a horrible digimon is keeping her prisoner. We have to save her. Please understand: we're the only ones who can do it." She turned and returned to her room, packing clothes and other items into a small bag.

Her parents came to her doorway. "What if we don't let you go?"

Ivi, having finished packing, slung the bag over her shoulder and walked up to them. "I wish we didn't have to go. Don't worry; I'll watch Max and Ash. I'll make sure nothing happens to them. They'll be safe." She pushed between them, and towards the door. First thing was first; they had to track down Demidevimon.

As soon as her younger brothers were by her side, each had packed similarly, although she figured it was out of laze rather than planning.

Ignoring the pained cries from their mother, and angry yells from their father, the siblings marched away, towards where they had seen Demidevimon fleeing.

Arumon, V-mon, and Bakumon quickly caught up, walking beside their respective partner.

Arumon noticed in the rush Ivi hadn't grabbed her staff. She sighed softly, and noted to have her buy one before they left for the digital world.

They all had painful thoughts. Ash hoped his father would still accept him, even though he had blatantly disobeyed him.

Max feared for their lives, though he couldn't hold back his excitement.

Ivi watched her digivice closely, watching the small red dot that was Demidevimon.

The digimon were concerned for the humans. Neither of the boys were competent at fighting or fending for themselves, and Ivi's abilities were questionable.

Their respective thoughts were interrupted by screams. The group ran down main street, towards the center of town. Upon arriving the sight made Ivi retch. Ivi and Max yelled, and turned, running, putting as much distance between them and the scene behind them.

Dead bodies littered the street. Throats slit, heads decapitated, organs spattered against walls and the pavement. It was like a sea of death.

The digimon blanched. "Oh my…" Arumon hadn't moved. V-mon swayed, for a moment.

"I… I'm gonna go make sure the kids are ok." With that he turned and ran as quickly as he could from the scene.

Bakumon surveyed everything, worry on his face. "We must slay the guilty." He hissed.

"We can't kill a human!" Arumon argued. "Although, whoever did this barely counts as a human…"

"I don't count at all!" A large purple rabbit-type digimon landed infront of them. He wore yellow clothing that reminded Ivi of the Yakuza, Japanese Mob, and had gauntlets adorned with two long blades each.

"That's fine. We can take you down anyway." Arumon growled then ran foreward towards the rabbit-digimon.

"Gauntlet Claw!" The blades burned a bright orange before slashing down at Arumon. The wolf called out, as the burning metal went through her side.

"Arumon!" Ivi, finally realizing she was without a weapon, picked up the nearest rock and hurled it at the digimon's head.

Bakumon surged foreword, "Nightmare Syndrome!" a black mass emitted from his mouth, and surrounded the rabbit digimon. "Who are you?" He asked harshly.

"Turuiemon!" The digimon responded in a monotone voice.

"Where did you come from?"

"The digital world."

"How did you come to be here?"

"I was flying along when I saw Caramon. He was covered in green energy. He transmitted it to me, causing me to evolve."

Bakumon soon lost his control over the rabbit and was rewarded with a hard punch to the face. Though his metal helmet protected him from the blades, the brunt force of the blow knocked him to the ground.

"Bakumon." Ivi looked over.

Arumon struggled to her feet, doing her best to ignore the blood seeping into her fur. "I'll _kill_ him!" She ran foreword to the best of her ability. "Arura light!" White energy gathered in her mouth before she shot it at the rabbit digimon.

Turuiemon easily dodged the attack. "I don't think so, puppy! Gauntlet Claw!" He swung at Arumon again.

Arumon doubled over in pain as white light engulfed her. Time seemed to have stopped for the moment. She felt her bones growing, her flesh stretching, muscles and sinew strengthening. She could feel each individual stand of fur as it grew. Her wings became larger, her wingspan nearly doubleing. Her fur changed drastically, and she could see the color shift with every movement she made.

She panted softly for a moment, until the pain subsided. She had evolved. She never wanted to evolve in the human world again. "Tarento Kaze!" an attack similar to 'arura light' was sent from her mouth, only now the light was surrounded by a powerful whirlwind.

Turuiemon flew backwards, narrowly missing Bakumon, and instead landing in the mass of dead bodies he had created.

"Northern Blast!" Intense heat surrounded her body as she rushed foreword. Upon making contact the techniques momentum send it through the murdering digimon.

All was quiet for a moment, as the rabbit devolved. Ivi was shocked to see Demidevimon laying there unconscious.

"You son of a bitch! You're dead!" Aruramon landed on the bat, energy gathering in her mouth again. But before she could finish the move, he disappeared. That is to say, he returned to the digital world.

Aruramon carefully walked over and picked Bakumon gently up in her mouth. She convinced Ivi was ride on her back, and the three quickly returned to Ivi's house.

Her parents stood waiting in the living room. They had watched the battle on television. "You can stop this?" her father asked quietly.

Ivi nodded, dismounting Aruramon, who reverted back to her rookie form after setting Bakumon on the ground. "We can."

Her younger brothers sat crying between her parents. Her father looked at his sons, then back at Ivi. His gaze then turned to Bakumon and Arumon. "And you can protect them?"

"With out lives." Arumon bowed slightly.

"You have my blessing. Please do not let me regret sending my own children out into war."

Ivi's mother shrieked. "You can't be serious! You can't allow your children-"

"If they can save this world then I must. They have my blessing, and powerful creatures watching over them. I'm certain they will be safe."


	4. The Wordless Airis

AN: Once again, I don't own digimon, but I own my characters, yada yada yada. Hope ya'll enjoy. Yada yada yada.

Have a good chapter.

EPISODE THREE:

THE WORDLESS AIRIS

Ivi's parents sat quietly on the couch as Ivi worked to mend Arumon's wounds and broken ribs. Deep gashes on her side from the last fight were refusing to heal.

"Ivi-nee-san! Are you sure we have to go? I don't want anything to happen to V-chan! I just met him." He hugged his digimon tightly.

Ivi gave him a sad look, then went back to wrapping her digimon's chest. "Aru…" she pondered how all the digimon on the shows never got hurt. She laughed softly at the thought. Of course they don't get hurt. It's just a show.

Ash sat at his parents feet, Bakumon resting next to him. While he had no critical wounds, his arm was broken and he hadn't woken up since they returned home.

V-mon pulled away from Max and walked over to Ash. "I'm sorry I ran away. I could have protected Baku-"

"You might have gotten killed. I'm sure if Bakumon didn't have that helmet he would be dead now." Ivi said quietly.

Ash let out a small whine and hugged Bakumon. "Please be ok, Baku-san…" a small red aura emitted from his digivice and engulfed Bakumon.

"Master?" the digimon looked up at Ash questioningly.

The boy cheered and tackled his digimon. "You're ok! You're ok! You'll live forever now!" small tears ran down his face.

Their parents had been silent. Their mom had finally resigned over to the fact that it was what was needed. A small smile crossed her lips seeing that her son's digimon would be alright. Her eyes returned to Arumon.

Ivi knelt beside her digimon, silently praying. She held her digivice against her partner's wounds, putting as much energy into it as she could. "Aru-chan… You'll be ok. You have to be." The girl bit down on her lip, pouring her strength into her digimon.

A purple aura engulfed Arumon, as her flesh stitched itself back together, and the ribs cracked back into place.

"I'm going to murder Demidevimon next time we see him." She vowed, struggling to all fours.

Finally tired of staying silent her mother cleared her throat. "So… will you have to go to… their 'world'?" she asked quietly.

The Children and digimon shared glances. "Yes." Bakumon said simply.

"And how exactly do you expect to get there?" Their dad asked, glaring pointedly at Bakumon.

"Carefully."

Ivi had to bite back a giggle at the response. V-mon wasn't quick enough to stifle his amusement.

The parents gave the lizard-like digimon a harsh glare.

"We'll find a way." Ivi stood, determination set in her features. "I got there before through my computer. I'll see if it works again."

She strode past the couch, Arumon and the others following behind quietly. After a few moments hesitation her parents trailed behind, and waiting in her doorway.

Holding her digivice towards the computer she clenched her fist around it. "Please work… we need to get there… there's something going on. Something is terriably wrong… let us IN!" Her digivice glowed, as did her computer screen.

The younger brothers quickly raised their devices as well, as a sharp burning sensation swept over them. It felt as if they were nothing and everything at the same time. Nowhere, and everywhere. Feeling all, and nothing.

As soon as it stopped Ash took a deep breath. He was the first to open his eyes. "Holy shit!"

"Ashteroth!" Ivi chastised him, then gave a dark glare towards Arumon who was chuckling nervously.

The world Ivi had come to six years ago was gone. The plant life, the skies, the clouds, anything that showed that this world was inhabited was gone.

"Wha? What happened to our home!" V-mon looked around frantically, clawing at the coarse ground. "How could this happen?" The sun shone brightly on the world, but no heat got to them.

"Hey guys!" They looked to the pink sky, (it had lost it's vibrance), to see Demidevimon flying towards them.

"Oh good. A way to take out our anger!" V-mon growled, clenching his fists. Bakumon and Arumon readied themselves to attack as well.

"Wait! Remember how I said I had a partner? Well, I found her! But I need your help to rescue her!" He pleaded quickly.

"Bullshit!" Ivi slammed her foot down on Arumon's tail. "Ow… I mean: … nrn… 'bullshit!'"

Ivi sighed and gave up. "So, you expect us to believe you have a partner?"

"I know you don't trust me but please." He landed and bowed low. "Please help me. She's in danger."

"I say we kill him." V-mon voiced, stepping towards Demidevimon.

"What if he is being honest?" Bakumon asked. "And because of us a child's life is ripped from her?"

The boys frowned. "Ivi-nee-san! We can't let that happen!" Max bit his lip. "We have to go help her…"

The other two digimon paused. "If you're lying, we'll make sure you die in the most painful way imaginable." Arumon promised.

Ash stood close to Bakumon. The two took the lead in following Demidevimon. The other four followed carefully, both digimon and Ivi wishing death on the bat-digimon.

The group walked for many miles. V-mon eventually had to carry Max, while Arumon allowed Ash to ride on her back. Bakumon stayed only a few feet from Demidevimon, ready to unleash a finishing move on him at any sign of trickery.

Ivi remembered years ago when she had had to walk a great distance. Though she had grown bored, she didn't remember it taking this much of a toll on her body.

Right before she felt she might collapse, the found a cave. It was the most color they'd seen since they arrived. Entering the cave the temperature dropped at least 20 degrees. The entire party shuddered and paused for a moment.

The group moved foreword, deeper into the cave. They finally saw a girl-she looked older than Ivi by a few years, lying on the floor, heavy chains covered her.

Ivi and V-mon ran foreword, grabbing the chains and pulling against them. They easily moved off of the girl. "They… aren't attached to anything…" Ivi stared down at them.

The girl on the floor stirred. She had short silver hair, and, as was seen when she looked up at them, green eyes that mirrored Ivi's. The two little boys ran to stand next to their sister. "Are you ok?" Max held out his hand, as if to help the girl up.

The girl waved his hand away and stood up. "Are you alright?" Ivi voiced the question again.

The silver-haired girl eyed Ivi, then smiled and nodded. She gave her a 'thumbs up'.

"How did you get here?" Max asked.

The girl just shrugged.

Ivi watched as her younger brothers pestered the older girl with questions. "Hey… Are you mute?" she finally asked when the girl gave no vocal response.

The girl turned to answer, but stopped when she saw Demidevimon. She looked down at the bat-like digimon, who smiled in return.

Their moment was cut short when a large tentacle came from within the cave, and pulled the girl inside. The girl was silent as she was carried off.

"Airis!" Demidevimon flew after the girl.

"Airis?" Ash and Max exchanged looks. "Did she ever say her name?"

"Digimon are born knowing their partners names." Arumon quickly explained. "Ivi, we have to help her."

V-mon stood straight. "I'll rescue her!" He nodded apologetically towards Arumon and Bakumon. "To make up for last night." He ran foreword, the others behind him.

Ivi's digivice began to glow. She looked down at it, in time to see a shadow of the device appear infront of it, glowing twice as bright. It shot off, faster than they could watch.

When the reached the area where Airis and Demidevimon were, they saw that Demidevimon had evolved.

A large black dragon-esque creature stood facing his partner's captor.

"Devidramon…" the humans said in awe. "He's beautiful." Ivi watched the digimon's graceful moves as he unleashed attack after attack. His gleaming red claws dug into the octopus-like digimon that held Airis.

"Dark Gale!" He cried, black energy engulfing his right foreclaw and he forced it into the octopus's heart. Blood seeped from the wound, quickly covering the cave floor. Airis fell from the now limp tentacle, and Devidramon had to run to catch her.

Carrying her gently with one arm, he walked towards the others on his remaining three. "Told you." He growled, before passing them.

"Tako-sushi anyone?" V-mon asked pleasantly.

"But we don't have any rice." Arumon pointed out.

While the two digimon conversed about how to go about getting rice, Bakumon hovered over to the digimon. "We should at least collect some of it, in case we need food later."

Ivi nodded then walked over to the octopus digimon, grimacing as she pulled meat from it, and stuffed it into her bag.

"Yucky!" Max and Ash stuck out their tongues.

"Yeah. Lets hope it doesn't come to having to eat it, then, shall we?" Ivi slung her back over her shoulder, trying to ignore the sound of the blood drops splashing against the ground after escaping her bag.

The six ran from the cave, the stench of the digimon finally registering in their brains.

They found Demidevimon and Airis sitting on a cliff about twenty feet down from the cave. After a bit of difficult descent the entire group sat on the ledge.

"So, you're name is Airis?" Ivi asked, conversationally.

"Yes." Demidevimon's pupils disappeared momentarily as he spoke.

"Um… so… you are mute?"

Demidevimon spoke again. "Yes, but I wasn't always. Jijimon took away my ability to speak."

"Jijimon? Like in Digimon World 01?" Ivi asked.

"Yes. He is-" before she could finish Airis and Demidevimon both collapsed, exhausted. It was apparent that it took a lot of energy to communicate like that.

"That was so cool!" Max came to Ivi's side.

"Jijimon… I can't imagine why he would take away Airis's power to speak. Not without a reason, right?" Ivi mused/

"Perhaps she is being deceitful?" Bakumon asked, narrowing his brown eyes at Airis.

"De-seat-ful?" Ash asked.

"Lieing." Bakumon explained patiently. "Why reason do we have to trust her?"

"She's a Chosen Child though, right? So… she has to be one of the good guys, right?" Max asked, confused.

V-mon thought about that for a little bit. "It was a little before my time. But my grandfather was alive whenever the Digimon Kaiser was reigning over the digital world. He even helped defeat him, with the aid of his partner, Daisuke."

"Daisuke Motomiya?" Ivi asked quickly.

"I think so. Anyway… the Kaiser was a Chosen Child too; with a 'Wormmon' as a partner. He was a terrible person, and killed many digimon."

Bakumon was silent for a moment. "I was alive at the time, working at a restaurant under Devitamamon, then Digitamamon. The sorry excuse for a human nearly destroyed primary village!" Bakumon growled softly. This was the most emotion they had ever seen him show.

Ash walked over and hugged his partner. "It's ok, Baku-chan. It's over now."

"That girl is Demidevimon's_ partner_. We already know he's a liar and a cheat. Why should we trust his human? Especially if Jijimon felt the need to-"

Bakumon was cut off by V-mon. "But Jijimon's an old coot. He and his wife fight to entertain themselves. They tried making humans fight for them." V-mon gave Airis and Demidevimon and unsure look. "Maybe we should give them a chance. Just in case, right?"

Bakumon eyed the child and her digimon for several long minutes. "Very well."

The rest of the group gave a collective sigh. "Aru-chan, were you alive when the Digimon Kaizer was here?"

Arumon looked up at her partner. "No, you had already rescued me from Vamdemon by that time."

Confusion set over Ivi's face. "But, that was only six years ago. How is it V-mon's _grandfather_ was here, yet V-mon hadn't been born yet?"

"Doesn't time go by weird here?" Ash asked. "Like each minute on earth is a day here?"

Ivi looked down at her brother, realizing he was right. She knelt down drawing the equations down with a sharp rock.

"That's still 144 years?" Ivi gave them confused looks. You're grandfather must be very old. That or you're…" she continued the math. "80-something years old?"

V-mon blinked. "Grandfather spent much of his time in the human world."

Still confused, the topic dropped when Airis stirred. She looked surprised. She got to her knees, and placed her hands together as if in prayer, then bowed slightly.

"It's ok, Airis-chan!" Max smiled.

"Yeah, we're just happy you're ok!" Ash continued.

Airis looked up and smiled. She frowned for a moment, and then rubbed her stomach.

"Yeah, I'm hungry too!" V-mon said. "Arumon lets go get some wood!" Arumon nodded and the two descended the mountain quickly, quickly gathering quite a bit of dead wood.

It took them nearly an hour to return up the mountain however. By which time Demidevimon had reawakened and the entire party was hungry.

Ivi set up the firewood, while Airis made a makeshift spit. They gave each other thumbs ups then Ivi set about finding food in her bag.

Pulling out several steaks, she realized this wouldn't feed them entirely. Sighing, she pulled the octomon meat from her bag as well.

Setting the food down on the ground she looked at the wood. Realization dawned on her: "Um… how are we going to start a fire?" She looked at them. No one had a lighter. Nor did any of the digimon have even a heat based attack.

"What about Arumon? You have that… light thing, right?" Demidevimon asked hopefully.

"Yeah, but that isn't heat. It's a cold light."

"But I thought light was a direct product of heat?" Airis quickly asked through Demidevimon.

"Only if the one who reacted you doesn't have a vivid imagination." Arumon eyed Ivi.

"I was seven." She defended.

The group pondered for a while. "Demidevimon… what's in your dart things?" Ash finally asked.

Demidevimon summoned one, then handed it to Airis. She broke it open, and poured the contents onto the wood.

Nothing happened, except now the wood was wet. "Dang it." Ivi chewed on her lip, staring at the small logs infront of her.

"Oh! I know!" Max said excitedly. "V-mon can evolve to Fladramon and-"

"No, I can't… only grandfather could reach that form." V-mon frowned. "Sorry…" his ears fell, and he stared at the ground.

"Well, we have to do something. Bakumon?" Ash looked hopefully at his digimon, hoping he had some ideas.

The tapir digimon seemed deep in thought. "Perhaps V-mon, you could hit a rock with your 'V-mon Whack' technique, and create a spark? I believe Demidevimon's poison is flammable."

"V-mon WHACK!" He punched the rock that Max had handed him; only to break his knuckles. He hissed. He bit his lip to keep from swearing. "Dang… that hurt."

Airis walked over to V-mon. She took a few of the smaller sticks they had brought, and wrapped them to his fingers with some tape that Ash had thought to bring. She then taped the fingers together, creating a makeshift cast.

"Thank you, Airis-kun." V-mon smiled at her, then studied the cast.

Max and Ash gave a cry of defeat. "We're gonna starve…" Demidevimon complained. Then his eyes lit up. "Wait!" The others looked at him. "That one digimon… Caramon… he screwed around with my evolution! He made me turn into that rabbit thing. If he were around, maybe he could make one of us evolve into something that could breathe fire."

"Good plan, just one problem. This… Caramon isn't here." Arumon said pointedly.

The group turned to staring at the wood again, willing it to catch fire.

"Need some help?" They looked above them, towards where they had heard the voice. A boy, he looked about the age of 18, stood a good 20 yards from them. A Gotsumon stood next to him. He had short red hair, and a pair of goggles on his head.

He pulled a card from his pocket, and slid it though his digivice. His Gotsumon grew wings, and the two fluttered down to their level.

Quickly looking though his cards, he selected another one, slid it though his digivice and the rock digimon called "Baby BURNER!" Fire flew from his mouth, igniting the sticks.

"My name is William. I'm a Digimon Tamer." He smirked at them.


	5. Unleash Your Digimon's Power: CARD SLASH

EPISODE FOUR:

Unleash Your Digimon's Power: CARD SLASH!

The group ate in silence. Bakumon and V-mon claimed they enjoyed the Octomon, so the others allowed them to eat it.

"William, huh?" Ivi looked over at him.

"Yes." He grinned at her, then over at Airis. "So, what are you beautiful young ladies' names?"

"She's Airis, I'm Ivi, and if you hit on us anymore I'll push you down the mountain." She said simply.

"Gotsumon! How did you blow fire like that?" Ash and Max were studying the rock digimon, searching for any other mysterious abilities.

"Master gave me the ability with his cards." Gotsumon said, pride filling his voice.

"Your… cards?" Ivi gave him a skeptical look.

"What, have you never watched Digimon: Tamers?" Realization dawned on them. "Yeah, that's right. I can give Gotsumon any power I want him to have. That power can make any digimon cooler."

The other digimon stiffened at this, V-mon sending a quick look of pity towards Gotsumon, although he didn't seem to mind the comment.

"So, you don't think Gotsumon's good enough as he is?" Airis challenged though Demidevimon.

"Of course he isn't. Look at him. He can't even evolve without my help."

Ivi and Arumon both stood immediately. "You think a digimon is worthless without their human partner?" Arumon growled.

"That should be obvious. They can't evolve, they're stuck with only a meager few techniques…"

"Have you opened your eyes lately,_ William_? Have you seen all the WILD digimon around here; that have the tendency to hand our butts to us?" Ivi snapped. "The reach their _adult _level… their perfect level… some even their _ultimate_ level. All without the aid of a human." Ivi's fist was clenched.

"Look, they might be good enough. I'm just saying that without me, Gotsumon wouldn't survive."

V-mon watched Gotsumon. The digimon seemed ok with everything his 'tamer' was saying. "Don't worry, V-mon. He's right." Gotsumon smiled. "I'm as good as dead without Master beside me, guiding me, and giving me his strength."

Airis stood up and began the descent from the mountain. Demidevimon quickly followed.

"You're a bad partner!" Ash yelled at William, before running after Airis.

"Bad HUMAN!" Max elaborated, following his brother.

"You make me want to vomit you lousy, sick, pathetic excuse for a Chosen One." Ivi turned, following the others.

V-mon gave a sympathetic look to the Gotsumon, then he and Arumon followed their partner.

Bakumon floated over to the rock digimon. "By allowing him to speak that way about you, you do nothing but prove that you are in fact: nothing without him. You're just as pathetic as he is." The tapir digimon turned and followed the rest of the party.

William had remained silent the entire time. Once they were gone he laughed. "What are they preaching about? Treating digimon like 'friends'. They're programs. They don't even really excist. Why treat them as anything but the tools they are?"

Gotsumon shrugged. "It's sad that they're so diluted as to believe that they're anything but tools to their partners."

William lay back on the cold ground. "They'll come back. They have to. I'm the leader, after all. I'm the one who was given the goggles." He closed his eyes and fell into sleep.

"That stupid, conceited, arrogant, son-of-a-bitch!" Airis shook with rage, using as many swear words as she could think of.

Ivi was too angry to stop her from swearing in front of her brothers.

Ash and Max weren't paying to much attention anyway. They were to busy watching the pumpkin-headed digimon that had been following them for the last several miles.

While they set up a rudimentary camp, they brothers kept their eyes on the digimon.

Finally when everyone but Max had fallen asleep, the digimon came into the clearing. "Hey, kid."

Max sat up quickly, his hand quickly going to his digivice.

"Hey, now. No need for violence. I'm a friend of Gotsumon's… I want to help him."

The digimon sat next to Max, and quietly spun his take. Telling of an adventure in the human world, while searching for a chosen child. Of following Vamdemon. Of meeting two Chosen Children, one of Friendship and one of Hope. Of how they those children had saved their lives.

He told of when they were reborn in Primary Villiage. How the human boy, William, had come, taking Gotsumon's egg. He also told them his name: Pumpmon.

"I know where your friend is." Ash nodded, pointing up towards the mountain.

"Thanks, kid." The pumpkin digimon ran off towards the mountain.

Reaching the cliff where William and Gotsumon slept faster than any human could ever hope to, he found his friend awake and waiting.

"Angry Rock!" A large boulder appeared over Pumpmon, who had to quickly dodge to the side.

"Gotsumon, what are you doing?"

"Madcap!" he threw himself at the pumpkin.

"Gotsumon! I'm you're friend! Remember?"

"I don't have friends. I don't need them." He slid to a stop only inches from the other digimon. "Angry Rock!" This time he slammed his fist into the other digimon's face.

"Gotsu…mon… I'm sorry. Trick-or-Treat!" He pulled the ax from his head, and hurled it at his friend. "What has this human turned you into?" he swung at the rock digimon repeatedly, although his blows were dodged and parried.

William was awake now, watching the battle closely. He drew out his cards, and readied to slash one of them through his digivice.

"No you don't!" Pumpmon turned to him. "Pumpkin Surprise!" A large pumpkin appeared over William, slamming into the ground. His digivice flew from his hand.

"Gotsumon. You're going to fight me alone. Digimon to digimon!" He swung his ax again.

Their dance of parries, dodges, and blows continued. "Remember Yamato! Takeru!" He gasped as Gotsumon's punch connected. "Ga…Gabumon." He was hit again. "Wait… why are we fighting?"

"You wanted to hurt my Master."

"What makes you think that?" He coughed as the other digimon head butted him.

"Why else would a wild digimon come up here?"

"Gotsumon! I'm your friend!"

"You keep saying that. I don't have any friends. I don't have anyone but Master. Never have, never will."

"Vamdemon! Surely you remember Vamdemon! We served under him together. We searched for the missing Chosen Child…"

"I've served no on but Master! Angry Rock!" Pumpmon was thrown backwards. He landed with a painful 'thud' against the rock.

The pumpkin digimon began glowing brightly. A large purple, mono-eyed, spider-like digimon stood where he had been.

"You evolved… without a tamer?" Gotsumon stared at the Ultimate level digimon.

"So can you!" The Parasimon leaped into the air, landing on Gotsumon. "Electric Bind." Electric silk surrounded Gotsumon, and proceeded to electrocute the rock digimon.

"I can't! I can't evolve without William."

"You can! You're better than him! Better without him!"

Gotsumon growled, gathering strength he didn't know he had. He began glowing brightly.

Moments later Parasimon was on his back, an odd-looking Monochromon standing over him. His horn was longer and ax-like, and a small blade tipped his tail.

"You can evolve too. Without your 'tamer'." Parasimon devolved back to Pumpmon, and stood. "Try to remember, Monochromon. We were in the human world. Serving Vamdemon. We met two of the Chosen Children. Yamato and Takeru! The brothers. Please…"

"With a Gabumon…" Monochromon's eyes widened.

William had now struggled from his pumpkin confines. "Gotsumon…" He fell to his knees, staring blankly ahead. "You really don't need me…"

"So, c'mon, Gotsu-kun. Let's go back home." Pumpmon held his hand out towards the Monochromon.

"No." The digimon devolved back to Gotsumon. "Even if I don't 'need' William. I want to stay with him. But thank you, Pumpmon." The rock digimon hugged his friend. "I'll look foreword to seeing you after everything is said and done."

Pumpmon looked down at the ground. "Alright. Have a good life, Gotsumon. And you'd better survive the coming battles." With that the pumpkin digimon disappeared.

Gotsumon walked over to William. "Come now, Master. Let's return to the others."

"Others?"

"Yeah. Those Chosen Children. They were so weak, they couldn't have gotten far." The rock digimon smirked, echoing his Tamer.

William smiled, and stood. The two descended the mountain, eager to catch up with the others.

Back in the Human World

"Simon! Simon!" The red-haired Chosen One rolled over in bed, covering his head with a pillow.

"SIMON!" He grunted under the weight of his digimon.

"What, Agnemon? WHAT? What on EARTH is so important that you have to wake me up?"

"Nothing on _Earth_, Simon." The grey digimon glared at him though the helmet-like skull. Deep red eyes showed concern. He was pointing towards the computer.

Simon groaned and got out of bed, trudging over to the computer. "Wha?" The screen was glowing, and, before he could register anything else, he felt himself being pulled into the digital world.

Back in the digital world

It was night-time when Simon opened his eyes. He patted the ground, finding it soft and plushy. Looking around he saw large toy blocks everywhere. Attempting to stand he found the unstable ground make it difficult.

"You alright, Blitzkrieg?" Simon opened his eyes and came face to face with Hidemon. Smaller than Agnemon, he also had wings and short little arms and legs.

"You devolved?... Wait. Why did you call me 'Blitzkrieg'?"

Hidemon gestured towards his partners clothing.

He was wearing the clothes he had fashioned after the Digimon Kaiser. "How on Earth?"

"Not Earth, it seems, Blitz. Digital World." Hidemon jumped around the plushy land.

It clicked then. "We're in Primary Village!" He struggled back to his feet, and found jumped was an easier mode of transportation. He jumped along, looking for signs of life.

Noticing the charred remains of several baskets he guessed what had happened. "Everything is dying…" he said quietly.

"Well, here we are. Guess that means we have to save the digital world?" Hidemon asked.

"Wonderful."


	6. The Digimon Kaiser! Blitz and Hidemon

EPISODE FIVE:

The Digimon Kaiser! Blitzkrieg and Hidemon!

Airis was the first to wake up. She looked around, then quickly scrawled a message on the ground, letting the others know she and Demidevimon had gone to find food.

It was only twenty minutes when she returned, panicked, to find Ivi trying to make out the message.

She kneeled next to her, shaking her arm to get her attention.

"Hey, any idea what this says?" Ivi asked Airis, pointing at the message. It was all in Japanese, and Ivi couldn't make heads or tails of it.

Airis sighed, and grabbed the stick she had used to write earlier, and tried to give Ivi the new message; again writing in Japanese.

Ivi stared blankly at it. Arumon came over at stared as well. "What's going on?" She asked, looking at Airis.

Airis had a look of frustration on her face. She returned to the soft ground, wiping clean her messages. She drew a rough image of a person.

"The Digimon Kaiser?" Ivi asked. "Ken has become good and such, though. He wouldn't be here."

Airis pointed east repeatedly.

"Alright. We'll go check it out."

"Hey, Airis… where's Demidevimon?" Arumon asked, noticing the annoying digimon's absence.

Airis threw her hands in the air, then again pointed east.

"Ok. We'll go get him."

The two headed off quickly.

It wasn't a long walk before they reached the soft green ground. Feeling it's springiness the two couldn't help but grin and jump around for a bit.

"Primary Village!" It was a few more minutes before they realized what was wrong. There were no eggs. And no digimon. It was deserted.

The two scaled one of the towers of plush blocks. Ivi flopped down and edged over to the side. From there she could see almost the entire village.

About half a mile away sat the person Airis must have been referring too; he certainly looked like the Digimon Kaiser. Only, something was off with him. The color scheme seemed to have more red than the Kaiser's did.

There was a small grey digimon beside him. Defiantly not the digimon Kaiser.

"Shall we then?" Ivi asked her digimon. When Arumon nodded the two leaped off the tower, hitting the ground, and rebounding easily. Finding it easier to leap than to run, the two crossed the half mile quickly.

"Death from above!" Ivi called out, tackling the Kaiser-look-alike.

He yelped as the fourteen-year-old girl tackled him. The ground caused the two to bounce and roll off, down a hill.

When the two landed the Kaiser-look-alike was pinning Ivi down. "What is your problem?"

"You are!" she punched him, then rolled from underneath him. Now sitting on his chest, she raised her fist to punch him again.

"Wait! Wait! I'm a Chosen Child like you!" he took off his glasses. "My name is Simon."

Ivi glared down at him for a moment. "Simon?" she looked up at the two digimon, now standing side by side. "Is that Agnemon?"

"He's Hidemon right now…"

A second later she was hugging him. "It's great to finally meet you in person." She blinked, then quickly got off of him. "Erm… sorry for punching you…"

He stared past her, disoriented by the sudden change in attitude. "It's… ok. What are you doing here?"

"Apparently trying to save the world. What are YOU doing he-"

"Bloody Whip!"

Simon let out a yell, falling to the side. The back of his cape was singed, but it didn't look like the attack had reached his skin.

Ivi stopped cold. She felt herself go numb. When everything remained still and quiet, and she remained safe, she turned to look.

Rather than seeing Vamdemon, as she had expected, Gotsumon and William stood there.

William walked over, and slammed his foot against Simon's back.

"Hey!" Hidemon ran behind him and head butted William, who fell to the ground.

"Aurora Light!" the bright flash of light caught everyone's attention. "Digi-sama… William, _never_ use that attack again. Especially not on another Chosen." Arumon glared at them. "Are you alright, Blitzkrieg?"

"I've been better…" He then stared at the wolf-like digimon. "How did you know who I was?"

"Because I can read." The digimon replied simply.

"So you left for here… what, just a few minutes after we did?" Ivi asked.

"What?" Simon sat up, taking off his cape and examining it mournfully.

"We'll, we've only been here… like a day or two. So you must have-"

"Ivi. The human world and digital world are in sync, last time I checked." William gave her a 'duh' look.

Ivi frowned. "Oh…" she didn't like the thought. She was now even more afraid that her parents would worry about her.

"So, 'Kaiser' what did you do with Demidevimon?" William glared at him.

"First of all, I'm not a Kaiser. Second, I didn't touch him! I haven't even seen him! Third… why are you calling me a Kaiser?"

"He's referring to the Digimon Emperor… Ken." Ivi explained.

"Airis never said he took me." Demidevimon flew down from a nearby tree. "I was just watching him."

Ivi and Arumon gave him an annoyed look.

And so, the small group returned to the campsite, to find Ash and Max had woken up, and they and Airis had managed to gather wood for the campfire.

"William-san, can you have Gotsumon start the fire again?" Max asked.

"Oh, and what are we cooking?" Ivi gave her younger brothers a skeptical look.

"Bakumon and V-mon went off hunting." Ash said excitedly.

"Anything those two catch will do little but kill us." Gotsumon said flippantly.

"Why is he even here?" Airis asked through Demidevimon.

"Eh… I'm gonna go help hunt." Arumon trotted into the woods, not willing to be present around William more than she had to be.

"Well. I _am _the leader after all." He sneered at Airis, and pointed up at his goggles.

"And who is he?" Airis motioned towards Simon.

Ivi grinned. "This is my friend: Blitzkrieg!"

Airis gave him an acknowledging nod, and then flopped onto the grass, bored.

"Well, she's quiet." Simon observed.

"Erm… Jijimon took away her power of speech." Ivi quietly explained.

"Jijimon? Like in the first Digimon game?"

"Yep." Ivi stared up at the sky, as though pondering something.

"'sup, Ivi-chan?" William asked, moving to stand close to her.

"First, don't call me 'Ivi-san'. Second, I was wondering why Blitz was sent here." She looked over at Simon and Hidemon, while stepping away from William.

Simon shrugged. "Agnemon woke me up, and next thing I knew I was under attach." He looked at her pointedly.

"I already apologized…" Ivi glared at the ground.

"We have food!" She looked up in time to see the three digimon running back into the clearing, carrying huge chunks of meat.

"Alright! What is it?" William asked, rubbing his hands together.

"Monochromon!" V-mon cheered, as he helped break it down into smaller parts, so that it was easier to cook.

Gotsumon heaved. "What? You're eating my _kin?_" He asked disgustedly.

"No, we're eating a giant digimon that nearly ripped clean through us." Bakumon explained.

"I refuse to aid you in the cooking of my-"

Blitzkrieg walked foreword, pulling a matchbook from his pocket and, after a few tries, and with the aid of Demidevimon's darts, managed to start a fire.

"Can we keep that?" Ivi asked, then grinned as Blitz handed it to her. "Thank you."

Simon nodded, and returned the smile. "Not a problem."

"Matches are dangerous, you know." Max chastised him.

"So is the digital world, and yet, here you are." Ivi eyed her brother.

The conversation went as such. The group speculated their purpose in the digital world, and ate the meat once it had cooked. Well, everyone but Gotsumon ate the meat.

"You have to eat something, Gotsu-chan. If you don't you won't be able to protect William." V-mon advised.

"I don't have to eat my brethren to protect my tamer!"

"You sure about that?" the group looked up in time to see the pale face and gleaming fangs of Vamdemon, before everything went black.

The darkness, they soon realized, was caused by his Alpha Bats.

Ivi took a step back. "Vamdemon…" Arumon dropped the piece of meat she had been eating. She forced herself to stand infront of her partner.

"Pathetic… Bloody Whip!" the two long strands of red energy lashed out at the group.

Light engulfed the area. When it faded six Adult level digimon stood beside their partners.

"Stay back, Ash." Wizardmon ordered his partner quickly, readying his broom to attack. "Magic Game!" Lightning shot at Vamdemon, but the Perfect easily deflected it.

"Volcanic strike!" Monochromon slammed his legs into the ground, aiming the burst of lava at the vampire.

Vamdemon flew out of range of the attack. "You all are pathetic." He taunted.

"It must be easy to say so far up there!" Yasyamon growled.

Max stared at his champion level digimon. "I thought you couldn't armor evolve?"

Yasyamon looked back at the young boy. "We'll talk about it later, Max. Stay behind us, where it's sa-" he was cut off by Vamdemon's whip, throwing him into the trees.

"V-mon!" Max moved to run after his digimon, but Ivi grabbed him and pulled him back.

"He's strong, he'll be alright." She promised.

"You're the pathetic one! Attacking young digimon." Agnemon growled, and ran foreword, his three red claws glowing red. He came within four feet of Vamdemon, before the Alpha Bats picked him up, and carried him back to Simon.

"Keep your digimon under check. He obviously cannot battle."

Aruramon let out a soft growl, and raced foreword. "Northern Blast!" His whip fell down on her, but not fast enough. He was knocked to the ground by her attack. She winced as she got back on all fours. "I know your games, Vamdemon. I know them all!" She ran towards him again.

"It won't work twice. Bloody Whip!" Both red flashes hit her square in the chest, throwing her backwards. She landed just behind Ivi and Max.

"Aruramon!" Ivi turned quickly, concern for her digimon seeming to drip off of her.

"Stupid idea, girl!" Vamdemon yelled feeling the burning light sear across her back.

"Now… where is that Demidevimon?" The vampire looked around, wanting to make this an even murder.

Demidevimon, now Devidramon, however was flying as fast as he could away from Vamdemon. He had his partner safely in his arms.

Likewise William was forcing Simon towards a small portal in the forest. "You two can't fight here. Go back home. You're only in the way."

"We can't just let Vamdemon attack you while we run away."

"Of course you can. Get out of here!" William quickly shoved the Kaiser-look alike down into the portal.

"Master!" Hidemon jumped in after Simon.

"Heh. He always was a coward." He referred to Demidevimon then turned back towards the group at large, most nursing their wounded digimon.

"Now… who to kill first." He smirked. "Small children always were my favorites." His Alpha bats moved, surrounding Max.

"No!..." Aruramon made it back to her feet. "Tarento Kaze!" The wind attack ripped the group of bats apart.

"Insolence! Bloody Whip!"

"Not this time." Ivi reached up quickly, grabbing the whip in her right hand. Tears instantly sprung to her eyes, as she felt the energy burn into her flesh, making quick work of the muscle. She tightened her grip on the whip, refusing to allow her youngest brother to come to harm.

Purple light began to emanate from her digivice, but before Aruramon could evolve Ash leaped on top of Vamdemon. "Let go of my sister!" He hit the digimon's head has hard as he could, repeatedly.

"Ash!" Wizardmon stopped in shock, as red energy surrounded Ash, and his digivice began to glow brightly.

Wizardmon felt the power engulf him. He felt as if he was drowning in it at first, but when it subsided he felt a new power within him. He was Phantomon now.

"Soul Chopper!" His golden scythe slashed down, however it only nicked Vamdemon.

"I see where this is going. I'm no fool." With that he disappeared, leaving the Chosen Children to collapse.

The digimon reverted to their Child forms, slumping against their partners.

Ivi laid on her side, cradling her hand. She was grateful that at least it had been cauterized, and no blood was flowing. However it was pain she had never felt the likes off. She couldn't see, and her other senses were greatly dulled as well.

"V-mon!" Max ran past his sister. Although he wanted to check on her, he knew Arumon would help her. He needed to see his partner immediately.

"I'm sorry, Max-chan. I tried my best." V-mon gave him a truly sorry look.

Max and Gotsumon checked the other members of the group, as neither of them had been hurt.

"Ash, that was very, very, very stupid!" Bakumon chastised his young partner. "But also, very brave. I'm am most honored to have you as my partner."

Ash nodded, and hugged his digimon, then moved to go see Ivi. "Ivi-nee-san. Are you alright?"

Ivi gave him a small smile. "I'll survive. Thank you for protecting me, Ash."

Max looked down at the ground, upset that he couldn't protect his sister as well. Hating himself for being so scared and weak.

V-mon chewed on his lower lip. "I really am sorry, Max. I don't mean to be so useless…"

Max looked over at him, but didn't reply.

As Simon and Hidemon traversed back to the real world, the human noticed something wrong. His clothing wasn't reverting back to the pajamas he had been wearing before being pulling into the digital world; instead when he landed in the middle of the street, (Hidemon beside him) he was still in costume. He went to stand up, but collapsed back on the ground.

"Master."

"HELP!" Hidemon turned quickly. Vamdemon had followed them and was currently advancing towards a young girl. She looked no older than three or four. "Hey!" He ran over and got infront of the girl. "Run, kid." He ordered, never making his eyes off of Vamdemon.

The vampire unleashed his red whip, aiming it over Hidemon, his target the small child. Hidemon jumped and knocked the whip away. "I said run!" He turned back towards the vampire. "You're opponent is me."

"Sorry, digimon." He didn't see the disappointed look on her face as she ran back towards her house. Nor did he notice her watching from the living room window.

"So you think you are going to fight me?" Vamdemon landed on the ground, and swiftly stepped foreword in a single motion.

The Child digimon knew he couldn't fight his opponent like this. "Master…" He called back.

Vamdemon's eyes flickered over to the unconscious chosen child. "Oh my, what a pity. I thought this fight might be more fun than this." He paused, as though thinking something over. "Perhaps I will at least take a souvenir." He held his hand out towards Hidemon, a malevolent grin on his face. "Death Scream!"

Hidemon raised up his two small arms, tightening his claws into fists. He closed his eyes tight, awaiting the blow.

Even when no blow landed he remained silent, tensing farther. He jumped when a scream pierced the quiet day. Hidemon's head shot up to see his master in the firm grip of Vamdemon's attack.

The energy had taken the form of a fist and had raised his master high into the air, ever tightening its grip. "Master!" Hidemon growled and ran at Vamdemon, ready to punch him.

"Are you sure you want to do that? If I get distracted, I might… drop him." He raised the chosen child higher into the air, sending wave after wave of energy through his body.

"Master…" Hidemon looked up, helplessly. He had to do something… anything! He clenched his eyes shut. His master was going to die and he couldn't do anything. In all the years he'd know his partner he'd never felt so useless.

Then it hit him. "Leave my partner alone…" He looked up at Vamdemon for a moment before throwing his head back. "Simon!"

Vamdemon couldn't help but yell. A sensation he had never felt before raced from Simon's body, through the energy that was connecting them, and then into his body.

He managed to see Hidemon begin glowing before he released this chosen child and fell back, holding his arm, before collapsing to the street.

Agnemon leaped from the asphalt and wrapped his arms around his partner. He hadn't expected Simon's weight to affect his balance so much. He quickly realized, even though he had a hold of his partner, the human would land first.

Tightening his grip he forced himself to roll in midair, landing on his back, his partner safely in his arms.

He looked down at his partner, to see him glance up at him. "Are you alright, Simon?"

"Si… yeah... Agnemon?" He sat up carefully, his body still aching from the abuse it had received. He looked over his digimon.

Agnemon smiled and carefully reached up and pulled Simon's glasses from his face.

Silver eyes stared into red. "I'm glad you're alright."

"You evolved… to protect me?" He moved off of his digimon, knealing beside him. "You got hurt… trying to save me."

"Trying? I think I did a darn good job." He grinned at his partner, though he didn't risk sitting up yet.

The human leaned down and hugged his digimon tightly. Only Agnemon witnessed the abrupt change in his partner's appearance. When he moved back his costume had been replaced by light blue jeans, and a dark green tie-dye shirt.

Agnemon held the glasses towards his partner. Simon stared at them for a moment. He took them in his hands. He started when he realized his gloves were gone. Looking quickly over himself, he wished he had worn shoes that morning. (not that he had had time to put them on)

He looked back at his digimon, and grinned, shattering his glasses.

They noticed Vamdemon stirring now. "How about this time, we fight together?" Simon held his hand out towards Agnemon.

The digimon took his human's hand in his claw and carefully stood, not testing his mobility carefully. He was amazed he hadn't broken anything.

He stood shakily, barely able to stand. He started to fall but Simon caught him. "Agnemon… are you alright? Can you fight?"

Agnemon gave him a quick smile. "I'll be doing good to stand up straight."

Simon looked down at the ground. "I'm sorry…"

"Not at all. I have an idea." The digimon grinned, then began glowing. Simon took a step back when he realized what had happened. His digimon now had a dark grey jumpsuit on. His skin was a grey with a blue tint. A long green cape fell over the digimon's back, setting off the bright red gems that adorned parts of his body. Silver hair fell down the coat, strands sometimes getting caught in the thick cloth.

The Perfect level digimon grinned, showing his rows of grey. "Together, right?"

Simon grinned in return, plucking his digivice from his pocket. "Go for it."

Armagemon snarled and flew towards Vamdemon, who dived to the side a few moments to late. The digimon had a tight hold on him as he shot towards the sky. He promptly threw the vampire digimon back through the portal, suddenly finding himself to weak to remain in this form.

Simon ran and caught the small skull-capped ball of flesh that was Demi-Hidemon. He smiled down at this digimon for a moment.

The two quickly returned to their house, the young girl Hidemon had seen earlier having watched the entire scene.

"Simon!" Demi-Hidemon's high-pitched cry rang through the boy's room. Said human looked over to see a fierce battle rageing on in the digital world. Shock covered his face. Minutes later it was over, and a vibrant light shone through the screen.

His small digimon yelled in pain. "Demi-hidemon!" he moved to his digimon's side, and grabbed him from the light. When he pulled away all he held was a digimon egg.


	7. A gift to the world: Matrix Evolution

EPISODE SIX:

The group sat around the remade campfire. William was recreating V-mon's splint, which had been destroyed in the last battle.

The other digimon argued quietly amongst themselves.

"They should go home. This is not their battle." Bakumon growled softly.

"This is as much their batter as it is ours." Arumon argued, growling back. "Besides, what else would you do? Send them home? They'll only worry about us."

"But we can't let them fall into danger! "

"They knew what they were getting into when they came here." Arumon snapped at the tapir. "Besides, how can we fight without our partners? They give us strength."

"Don't give me that. You know as well as we do, we can evolve even if they aren't here."

"I think Bakumon is right." Gotsumon leaned foreword. "We should send them home. Once this is over, we can return to their world, and live out their lives with them. But in order for that to happen, they have to survive."

Arumon's eyes narrowed. "But-"

"Do you truly believe Max and Ash could survive another battle like the one not an hour ago?" Bakumon looked over at his partner and the other three. "And Ivi needs medical treatment. Human treatment. Look at her hand."

Arumon sighed, knowing the honesty in what he said. "Very well. But tell me, oh great one, how are we to send them back home?"

Bakumon smiled. "With this." He nodded his head towards a small glowing spot on the ground.

"A portal?" Gotsumon walked over, and looked down at the area. He could see the human world on the other side. "Good. Let's send them home."

"What about Airis?" Ivi asked.

The digimon jumped and turned to look at their human partners.

"You're going to send us home?" Max asked sadly.

"It's for the best." Bakumon explained. "We can't have you all dieing on us, now, can we?"

"Ivi-san. I don't want you to go but… you need help for your hand. And well… I wouldn't leave Max and Ash in _his_ care." Arumon nodded towards William.

Ivi chewed on her lip, and looked at the others.

"Well, why should I go?" William glared. "I'm not hurt."

"Because I can't concentrate whenever you are just sitting there behind me! You're useless as a Tamer!" Gotsumon grabbed William and shoved him through the portal.

The others stared at him in shock. "No… it's not what you think. I just… don't want Master to be hurt." Gotsumon looked down at the ground, feeling ashamed.

The other humans paused for a moment. "Make sure Airis gets out safe as well." Ivi gave them the order, then ushered her younger brothers through the portal. "Come back home safely." She went though the portal herself.

The redhot burning sensation, that was beginning to feel quite common to her, raced through her body again. She momentarily noticed she couldn't feel anything in her right arm, before she hit the ground. She was thankful that something soft had broken her fall.

"Entfernen Sie sich von oben genanntem ich!" (Basic translation: Get off of me!)

Ivi yelped, and struggled off of whoever she had landed on. She felt her jaw drop when she realized she had landed of William. He adjusted his goggles, then turned to glare at her. "Entlang was starren Sie an?" (what are you staring at?)

"You don't speak English?" Ivi gaped at him, not expecting this.

William stared at her. "Sie sprechen nicht Deutsches?" (You don't speak German?)

Ivi sighed, and held her head. "Ung…" She looked around briefly for her brothers till the pain hit her. She collapsed on the ground clutching her right arm. "God… damn it!" It hadn't hurt like this in the digital world.

William's eyes widened. "Hilfe! Jemand!" (Help! Someone!) He looked around wildly.

"Ivi-nee-san!" Ash and Max ran over. "William-san, can you carry Ivi?"

"Was?" He gave them a bewildered look.

"Carry!" Ash made a cradleing motion with his arms.

Realization came over William, and he carefully lifted Ivi into his arms.

"Follow us." He pointed at William, made it so that his right hand 'walked' across his left, then pointed at himself and Max.

The two younger brothers ran ahead, the Tamer following behind as close as possible, trying not to jostle Ivi to much.

He was led into a two story house. By this time Ivi had passed out, presumable from pain.

"Oh my god!" Ivi's mother was the first to notice the state of her arm. "What happened to her?"

"Wir wurden von Vamdemon angegriffen." (We were attacked by Vamdemon)

Ash, catching the gist of it, translated: "Vamdemon got her."

"That… vampire creature from the cartoon?" Their father asked.

"Nevermind what happened! We have to get her to the hospital!"

A quick drive later, in which most of William and huddled in the back seat, not used to the idea of driving on the left side of the road, they arrived at the hospital.

Ivi's father had taken over carrying his daughter and they raced into the emergency entrance must faster than if William had still been struggling to carry her.

"What happened?" The nurse stared, open mouth at the girl.

"We… we're not sure…" Ivi's mother gave the nurse a pleading look.

"Dr. Kiddo! We have a patient that needs immediate attention!"

A tall Japanese doctor ran down the hall. He had blue-black hair that fell into his eyes, behind his glasses. "Kami-sama…" He shook himself. "Lets get her into the ER." Two other nurses quickly came by with a stretcher, which Ivi's father laid her down on, as they rushed her to a room towards the back of the hall.

"Kiddo-san!" Ash quickly grabbed the doctor's pant leg. "You were one of the chosen children right?"

The doctor stared at him. "Excuse me?"

"You went into the digital world with Gomamon!" Max exclaimed, recognizing him.

"Yes, but now I need to go tend to your sister…"

"Vamdemon did it!" Ash explained everything as quickly as he could.

Jyou nodded. "Thank you for telling me." He turned and quickly made his way into the room, giving the nurses a briefing of what he had learned.

The group was guided to the waiting room. "Will she be ok?" The nurse shrugged, and left the family (and William) to sit in the room hoping that Ivi would be alright.

It was only a few minutes before Ivi awoke again, to a quiet beeping. She opened her eyes, and tried to sit up. However, she quickly discovered that one of her arms was bandaged so heavily, she doubted she'd have been able to lift it before most of it was burnt away.

Her other arm was also incapacitated, however that was because of the several needles sticking out of it. She noticed they were connected to tube. Her eyes followed the line of tubing and stared at the different liquids that were being pumped into her.

"Where am I?" She looked around. It took her a few more minutes to realize she was in the hospital. "Well, that explains the bandages… how long have I been here?"

"I hope you're not expecting yourself to answer." Ivi looked up quickly, to see the blue-haired doctor. "My name is Jyou Kiddo."

"You're Japanese right? The one with Gomamon?"

He stared at her blankly. "Why does everyone know that?"

She shrugged softly. "Lucky guess?" she suddenly found herself to tired to tell him the truth.

"Are you alright?"

"Oh my God! Arumon!" She tried to sit up again, only to find herself incapable. The soft beeping was starting to get to her. "Arumon needs my help…" She looked pleadingly up at the doctor. "Surely you understand…"

Jyou eyed her carefully, then turned on the television. It reacted with her digivice and allowed them to see the battle taking place. Vamdemon had reappeared, attacking the tired Child-level digimon.

Watching on in horror, Ivi realized that Jijimon was with Vamdemon, fighting by his side.

"A Perfect and an Ultimate against four Children?" Jyou gave the television a disgusted look.

"Two Perfects!" Gomamon appeared next to Jyou, his fin pointing at a Megadramon that was holding the injured V-mon down.

Out in the waiting room the Chosen Children stood, staring at the television. The battle raged on in silence. Max clenched his fists tightly as he watched Devidramon's fists connect with V-mon over and over, pushing him into the ground. "V-chan…"

"Bakumon!" Ash ran up to the television, watching as Vamdemon's 'Bloody Whip' lashed at him, tossing him from side to side.

Elsewhere in the world Hikari's kindergarten class was also watching the battle on their television.

In fact, humans and digimon alike, all over the human world, were watching the battle rage on. Anywhere there was a TV or computer, the world could see as the child-level digimon fought their hardest to protect both worlds.

Taichi stood outside of DATS Headquarters, Masaru, Tohma, and Yoshino with him. Their digimon gaped at the battle. "Aniki! I wanna fight!" Agumon whined to Masaru.

"I do too…"

Elsewhere Sora and Mimi were relaxing in the part, letting their children and their digimon partners play. "Sora-chan!" Piyomon fluttered infront of Sora, then landed on her lap and pointed towards the large digital billboard that rose over the trees.

"Oh my…" Mimi chewed lightly on her lip.

"Arumon!" Ivi struggled to sit up again, however Jyou moved quickly to her side to push her back down.

"I understand your concern, but you can't help her in this condition."

"I can do more there than I can here-" She was cut short by the image of Myotismon's bloody whip singeing through Arumon's body.

"Aru…" She attempted to get off of the bed again, but the doctor held her back again.

"Look, I'm sorry, but you can't help her like this!"

"The hell I can't!" she was silenced from saying anything more with a look from Jyou. He carefully pulled the needles and tubes out of her arm

"Now go help your digimon."

Gomamon gave him an odd look. "Are you sure that's ok Jyou?"

Ivi was already up and going towards the TV, her left hand holding onto her digivice tightly, pointing it up at the television.

As she watched her digimon was slowly deleting she called out: "Not yet Arumon, I'm coming."

But nothing happened. "Arumon!" She nearly threw her digivice at the screen. "Arumon! Don't die! Arumon…" She bit her lower lip and stared down at the ground. "Aru…" hot tears ran down her face.

She started when she felt a thin cord dropped around her neck. She looked down to see Jyou's grey insignia of Sincerity. "You could use this more than me right now."

"Hai… arigato… AIBOU!" She clenched her fist around the digivice and screamed for her partner as loud as she could.

Her cry was heard all over the small hospital.

She felt herself passing back into the digital world, however the burning pain that normally came with this transportation was gone. Or at least she was numb to it.

Before she was totally in the digital world she felt more data being added to her. Large white wings sprouting from her back, and thick, grey fur covering her body. Her clothing transformed into long white robes, and her hair grew and became the color of silver.

She landed in the digital world, a staff in her left claw. Looking down she saw only a skeleton where her right arm should have been. "Vamdemon… Jijimon… with the power of the other chosen children behind us. We will destroy you!" she raced foreword, staff above her head. Her aim was towards Vamdemon.

"Claw of Doom!" She turned, barely in time to block Jijimon's blow.

"Bloody Whip!" This attack she wasn't able to block.

It wasn't long before the two digimon were beating her down. She could only be thankful that V-mon, Bakumon, and Gotsumon were distracting Megadramon enough to not allow him to join in attacking her.

"Ivi-san!" Max yelled, digging his fingers against the television screen. "Ivi-nee-san!"

Instantaneously, digivices of all shapes, sizes, abilities, and purposes shined brightly. Chosen Children held their digivices towards the screens they were watching the battle on, hoping to give Ivi, now as KazeWolfmon, strength.

Instead it shattered the barrier between the real world and the digital world, allowing Max, Ash, and William pass through the portal with ease.

"Gotsumon! Get ready!" His rock-type digimon nodded. "Cardo Slash!" He deftly slid a card through his D-arc. "Warp Evolution!"

Only moments later a Triceramon stood there. His three horns were made of gold, and small silver spikes covered parts of his body.

"Bakumon!" Ash called to him. "Don't let those evil digimon get you. Evolve!"

Bakumon grinned, and evolved as well, skipping his Adult form and becoming Phantomon.

"V-chan… can you evolve? I'm sure we'll need you…" V-mon gave Max a determined nod. Using all the strength the two could muster he became Karatenmon.

"Alright… Get him!" Ash called out. Phantomon quickly followed his command and rushed at Megadramon.

"NO!" Airis screamed. While the other digimon had been evolving she had witnessed Vamdemon's defeat (KazeWolfmon had managed to land a blow with her staff that punctured his heart), but also KazeWolfmon's. She pointed, shaking at the image before them.

The Chosen Children and their digimon towards a horrific sight. When KazeWolfmon had taken her attention off of Jijimon to attack Vamdemon, the old digimon took advantage of the moment. His clawed staff was buried in the wolf digimon's skull.

"Ivi!"

In the real world Ivi's parents sat shocked, as they watched their daughter fall to the ground, blood pouring from her skull and collecting on the ground, in a puddle around her.

Ash suddenly turned and stared at Airis. "You can speak?"

Jijimon laughed, stepping over KazeWolfmon's prone body. "There's no reason for her not to be able to now. I'm not going to bother killing you all personally… you'll die soon enough as it is…"

"What?" William carefully knelt and gathered stones in his hand, ready to throw them.

"He wants to kill every human who knows about the digital world. And every digimon who knows of the humans." Airis explained quietly.

"But that's asinine!"

"And you helped him!"

"No!" Airis held her hands up in defense. "I was trying to protect the world. The key to the worlds destruction is Vamdemon…"

"So that's why you ran off…" William mused for a moment, then realized how pressing the matter had become. "Shit!"

"Kill him… and it shall end…" the turned and saw KazeWolfmon moved into a knealing position. She absorbed as much of Vamdemon's data as her strength would allow. "Kill him!" She cried out and collapsed, her body turning into data.

"Cara Cara!"

"Cricri Cricri!"

Jijimon turned quickly. "No!"

"We grant you this gift, chosen children! Save our world… and your own!" The two small white digimon touched foreheads. They collected Ivi and Arumon's data between them. Splitting the mass of data apart, the two digimon moved away from each other.

Caramon carefully formed her data into a digiegg, while Cricrimon sent his data towards the Chosen Children.

The gasped, feeling strength overcome them.

Max fell to his knees as he felt Karatenmon's data enter his body. His arms formed huge blackish wings, and feathers covered his body. Ornithmon.

Airis closed her eyes, easily welcoming Megadramon into her body, allowing them to share a soul. She felt changes take place, but couldn't keep up with them. When she opened her eyes she recognized herself as a Mugendramon.

William had a content look on his face as Triceramon's strength joined with his own. He felt large spikes sprout from his spine, and dark red scales formed from his flesh.

Ash smiled as Phantomon gave him a firm hug before entering his partner's body. He realized not a lot changed as he evolved and his partner and he became one. When the light dimmed and he could see again he yelped. He was Piemon.

Jijimon stood, surrounded by Ultimate level digimon. All very upset with the loss of their friend.

"You can do it!" Jyou called out towards the television, earning him a strange look from the nurse walking by.

"Go for it. Kick his digital ass!" Masaru called out.

"Show that little furball why they don't mess with Chosen Children!" Ruki, Takato, and Jenra watched the battle a few classrooms away from Hikari's class.

The four attacked as one, led by the strength from Chosen Children across the world, as well their own grief and anger at their friend's death Jijimon was destroyed.

They easily returned to the human world afterwards. Each of them carrying a digiegg; William carrying two. He bowed his head as he handed Arumon's egg to Ivi's crying parents.

Her funeral was held only a week later. Every Chosen Child that had seen her fight, and was in reasonable distance from the cemetery came to pay their respects.

Once almost everyone had cleared, William walked up and placed his goggles on her tombstone. "Ich dachte immer, daß ich der Führer... war, aber möglicherweise es truely Sie war, das uns führen." (I always thought I was the leader... but perhaps it was truely you who lead us.)

"Sorry I did not know you good. Your heart live in mine now." Airis bowed her head, her English held a thick Japanese accent.

"Onee-san… We'll take real good care of Arumon when she hatches. We promise." Max held tightly to Arumon's egg.

Ash stood their quietly, unable to get himself to say anything. Instead he carefully laid her Bo across her grave. "Kick some butt in heaven, Sis." He nodded, trying his best to hold back tears.

More time passed. After several months Airis fell ill and also passed. Her egg was sent to Max and Ash, asking them to keep it safe. Her parents had seen part of her enter Demidevimon's egg after she died.

The young brothers visited Ivi's grave every chance they got for months. But as time passed they began to move on from their sister's death, and even left Arumon's and Demidevimon's eggs in the back of a closet, forgotten.


End file.
